iron out the wrinkles

[kev]

hi thought i see what you guys think of this skin smoothing.
i know its not the best background ,i just want you to comment on the skin smoothing , do you think it works ?

[Colby]

kev,
First the disclaimer, I am not an expert in photoshop. I’m sure the experts will be along shortly. What I really like is the fact that you did not go for perfect. Weddings are the time for some fantasy. You have provided a bit of that with your improvements, but have had the good taste to avoid perfect and not take it over the top. Nicely done.
Cheers,
Colby

[PavelOlavich]

Kev, you did okay to remove the wrinkles, but now get the tones ironed out too, and this women will lose 10 years. Did you focus on the eyes? They're a bit soft in focus...seems her bangs, her hair has the focus. Or maybe your smoothing routine killed the sharp eyes? I don't know. What F-stop? Which focus point did you use? What method did you use to smooth the skin? What ever it was, was it a big bang, or did you use layers/mask for selective application?

[kev]

hi pavel i used f stop 5.6 @ iso 200
i did use a quick mask selection process
I think you may be right about the smoothing process killing the sharp eyes , as i did focus on the eyes.
As for the tone she was quite tanned ( a little fake i think ) but dont tell her i said that.
When i took their proofs yesterday , they loved the images but the bride complained about her wrinkles and asked if i could get rid of them.So just wanted to see want you guys n girls thought.Im quite pleased with results.
Thanks for your opinions.

[DAVE PROUTY]

You could get better results by making a duplicate layer and using the patch tool to eliminate the wrinkles, then reduce the opacity of the duped layer to taste. To enhance this even more, and smooth the rest of the face a little, you could duplicate the dupe layer and do a gaussian blur and erase with a soft brush all but the parts needed to be softened. The result is as follows.

[PavelOlavich]

Originally Posted by DAVE PROUTY

You could get better results by making a duplicate layer and using the patch tool to eliminate the wrinkles, then reduce the opacity of the duped layer to taste. To enhance this even more, and smooth the rest of the face a little, you could duplicate the dupe layer and do a gaussian blur and erase with a soft brush all but the parts needed to be softened. The result is as follows.

Great job DAVE!

Now Kev, you need to tell the new missus to stop the sunning, smoking, and drinking too! Just kidding...

[DAVE PROUTY]

I think I learned the technique from an Ed Pierce Photovision seminar in which Eddie Tapp did a video presentation. It was very straight forward and effective. It might even be available from Eddie's website.

Of course, if you want to pay ME for doing this for you...

[kev]

thanks for that Dave , this does seem more effective and thanks for info.